Russia may say that the sanctions imposed by the Western world and many other countries are not affecting its economy, but there are signs that Russia is suffering. For example, there seems to be a noticeable increase in accidents in passenger aviation, seemingly caused by maintenance issues and other technical problems. Russian aviation is compressed under an impressive weight of sanctions.
Russian commercial aviation is built on the Western-made planes. Image credit: AndreyFilippov.com via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)
Western countries do not allow their companies to export aeroplane parts and aircraft maintenance services to Russia. This, of course, is a response to the invasion of Ukraine launched by Russia on February 24, 2022.
Russia has accumulated some parts in its warehouses, some spare parts they can get by dismantling old planes, some they import through secret channels or acquire by servicing their planes in other countries that ignore the sanctions. But the fact is that Russian aviation is clearly suffering from increasingly poorly maintained planes.
The Wall Street Journal reports that economic sanctions are strangling Russia so badly that they are causing a large increase in accidents in the aviation sector. These are not necessarily fatal accidents, of course, but planes just keep breaking down. And some of those accidents are quite bad.
For example, On 12 September 2023, the Airbus A320-214 or Ural Airlines had to perform an emergency landing in a field, because it experienced a hydraulic failure and couldn’t even close the landing gear door. It tried to reach another airport, but ran out of fuel, due to the increased air resistance flying with the open landing gear door.
The airline denied that this accident was somehow related to sanctions or uncertified parts, but this is still one of the versions about what happened there. And it was far from the only aviation accident in Russia in 2023.
Airbus A320-214 of Ural Airlines resting in a field. It’s still there since 12th of September 2023. Image credit: Пресс-служба авиакомпании «Уральские Авиалинии» via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)
In 2022, 36 accidents occurred in Russian aviation. In 2023, this number reached 74. In these statistics, by the way, only those accidents that affect aircraft capable of carrying at least 19 passengers are included. The smallest aeroplanes are not counted, even though they should also suffer from shortages. This deterioration in aviation safety is attributed to poorer aircraft maintenance and bad-quality parts, so the situation is likely to worsen over time.
More than two-thirds of Russia’s passenger aircraft fleet consists of Boeing and Airbus planes. They are quite popular in the entire world and Russia could try getting their parts through unofficial channels.
However, the required amount of parts is quite large and ensuring the quality of service is now a difficult task for Russia. Putin’s plan is to increase production of domestic airliners, but those also heavily rely on Western tech and the increase in production is not going to be sudden. It will be interesting to see what Russia’s aviation safety stats will look like at the end of 2024.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Wikipedia